On Wednesday, September 15^th in the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw took place the ceremony of the awarding of the Jan Karski and Pola Nireńska Prize. This year’s winner is Joanna Nalewajko-Kulikov, awarded in recognition of her activity for the popularization of knowledge about the culture and history of Polish Jews. She has been chosen by the Award Committee, whose members were: Prof. Jerzy Tomaszewski, Prof. Feliks Tych, Dr. Eleonora Bergman (Director of the Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw), Dr. Jonathan Brent (Director of the YIVO Institute) and Marek Web (YIVO Institute).

Joanna Nalewajko-Kulikov was born in Warsaw in 1976. She is Assistant Professor at the Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw. She is also associated with the Jewish Historical Institute and the Museum of the History of Polish Jews. Her research is focused on the history of Yiddish culture in the 19^th and 20^th centuries and on the history of Polish Jews throughout the 20^th century, particularly during the Holocaust and the Polish People’s Republic. Joanna Nalewajko-Kulikov is the author of two monographs “Strategie przetrwania: Żydzi po aryjskiej stronie Warszawy” (“Survival Strategies: Jews on the Aryan Side in Warsaw”, published in 2004), awarded by the Aleksander Gieysztor Foundation and the Ministry of National Education, and “Obywatel Jidyszlandu: rzecz o żydowskich komunistach w Polsce” (“Citizen of the Yiddishland: About the Jewish Communists in Poland”, 2009), presenting the figure of the poet and communist activist Dawid Sfard and the history of the Jewish community in Poland from 1930 to 1968.

The Jan Karski and Pola Nireńska Prize was created in 1992 by Prof. Jan Karski, legendary courier of the Polish underground during the Second World War, witness of the Holocaust and Righteous Among the Nations. It was endowed to honor the memory of his wife Pola Nireńska, dancer and choreographer. The prize is awarded by the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research in New York, honoring the authors who present in their works the role and contribution of Polish Jews to the Polish culture. The winners of the award are: Eugenia Prokop-Janiec, Jerzy Ficowski and Michał Friedman, Marek Rostworowski, Henryk Grynberg, Ruta Sakowska, Jerzy Tomaszewski, Hanna Krall, Maria and Kazimierz Piechotko, Rev. Stanisław Musiał, Leszek Hońdo, Michał Jagiełło, Monika Adamczyk-Garbowska, Jan Jagielski, Joachim Russek, Joanna Tokarska-Bakir, Szymon Rudnicki and Aleksander B. Skotnicki.